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CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost pointed out that short-term holders of Bitcoin (STH) have been in a profitable state on average for nearly two months, with an estimated cost basis of $76,500 and a current average profit margin of about 5.5%. Compared to less than a month ago when unrealized profits averaged as high as 20%, this level has significantly narrowed.The last time short-term holders had such high profits was shortly before the peak in October 2025, so the subsequent market consolidation is not surprising. Darkfost believes that short-term holder profits are still present, and the cost basis of $76,500 remains a noteworthy support level, with short-term holders likely to intervene here to defend the average entry price.

After Anthropic publicly submitted its prospectus the previous evening, investment institutions and market participants began to assess its growth quality, cost structure, and potential valuation. Morningstar senior equity analyst Malik Ahmed Khan and PitchBook analyst Rolfes stated that as of September 30, Anthropic had over 11,900 enterprise customers contributing at least $100,000 in revenue over the last 12 months, compared to about 950 in the same period last year. Khan believes this reflects a faster adoption of Claude in the enterprise market and significant revenue growth.Analysts also pointed out that the rapid increase in customer numbers alone is insufficient to indicate long-term revenue stability. The prospectus lacks detailed data on customer retention, and the disclosed net revenue retention rate is also affected by a small base; as the comparison base expands, this metric may decline. Investment in computing power is another focus. Morningstar believes that Anthropic currently demonstrates a certain level of computing efficiency and operational efficiency, but some computing resources and related expenditures have not yet been fully reflected; as more computing power is utilized, costs may rise, and if revenue growth does not keep pace, profit margins will be under pressure.PitchBook analyst Rolfes reminded that the scale of future computing contracts and infrastructure commitments is enormous, and whether revenue growth can be sustained is an important variable in assessing profitability prospects. Gavin Baker, managing partner and chief investment officer of Atreides Management, stated that it is still possible for Anthropic to reach an annualized recurring revenue of $100 billion by the end of the year; this statement reflects his personal judgment and is not the company's published performance guidance. Nigel Green, CEO of independent financial advisory firm deVere Group, questioned the market's rumored potential valuation of $2 trillion, calling this expectation "absurd," and reminded to pay attention to infrastructure investments, slowing growth, and future financing needs. The $2 trillion figure remains a market rumor, and the prospectus has yet to determine the offering price and scale.

CryptoQuant certified analyst Trader_Gemini stated that the Trader On-chain Realized Price has risen again, currently becoming an important reference indicator for observing the subsequent trend of BTC. This indicator reflects the average acquisition price of BTC that last transferred in the past 1 to 3 months and can be used to measure the average holding cost of recent market participants. Currently, the trading price of BTC is in the low range of $80,000, while the realized price for traders has risen to the mid-range of $70,000, indicating that the current price of BTC is still above the recent average cost for traders.From the current structure, recent market participants are generally still in a state of unrealized profit, and the short to medium-term cost structure remains relatively positive. Historically, when the market is in an upward phase, the realized price for traders often provides support when BTC retraces close to that level. If the price can hold above this cost line, it indicates that the holding cost for recent participants may still provide support for the market; conversely, if BTC falls below this level, some traders in an unrealized loss state may sell when the price rebounds close to their cost, turning that position from support to resistance.In addition, Trader_Gemini also reminded to pay attention to the Upper Band of the indicator. Historically, when BTC prices approach the upper band, it is often accompanied by increased profit-taking pressure, which may lead to a short-term pullback. Therefore, if BTC continues to rise, the market reaction near the upper band is worth close observation; if BTC experiences a pullback, attention should be paid to whether the realized price for traders can provide effective support. Trader_Gemini emphasized that the upper band does not necessarily mean the market will peak, and the realized price for traders does not guarantee that BTC will rebound; neither should be viewed as automatic triggers for trading but rather as reference indicators for judging at what price recent market participants may change their behavior. Currently, BTC is still operating above the realized price for traders, and the overall cost structure remains positive; if a deeper adjustment occurs later, whether this indicator can continue to provide support will become an important observation point.

Renowned trader Killa stated that the market is currently anticipating Bitcoin to reach the previous extreme low point of the downturn again, but at that time, the "liquidation shadow" appeared during a concentrated outbreak of multiple negative factors. Unless more negative news emerges subsequently, it should not be assumed that Bitcoin will inevitably drop to the previous low point again, and historical trends may not simply repeat.Killa further pointed out that buyers in the fourth quarter seem to still be waiting for a lower entry price and suggested that investors continue to dollar-cost average (DCA) into BTC over the next few weeks.Killa mentioned that Bitcoin has currently retraced about 9%, and in his view, this is a decent pullback within a bull market.

According to CoinDesk, Ben Edgington, the coordinator of the Ethereum rapid finality research direction, along with several researchers, submitted a draft proposing to reduce the transaction finality waiting time from about 16 minutes to about 4 minutes, improving it by approximately four times.The current goal is to push this draft into the formal upgrade proposal process. The core idea of the draft is to separate the original "block selection" and "finality confirmation" mechanisms of validators, allowing finality to progress at a faster pace and facilitating future adoption of quantum-resistant signatures.Faster finality is expected to reduce the costs incurred by cross-chain transfer services due to capital occupation. The Ethereum Foundation's research provides an example: if a service advances about 1 million dollars per hour, under a 16-minute delay, approximately 267,000 dollars would be pending recovery, which could be reduced to about 67,000 dollars after shortening to 4 minutes.

MiniMax announced that M3.1 Flash has officially been released, and the earlier version, Space Bunny, which topped global rankings and processed over 200T tokens, is its predecessor.M3.1 Flash achieved scores of 62% on Automation-Bench, 30% on ALE, 74% on DeepSWE, and 91% on BabyVision in tasks such as Cowork, Coding, and Visual Reasoning.

The cryptocurrency trading platform Bitfinex stated on X that even though the ETF is in a sell state, new BTC buyers have still accumulated about 570,000 BTC since the end of July.Bitfinex indicated that the average cost for these buyers is approximately $75,000, and this cost has been maintained during each pullback since August.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared that the cost of Bitcoin mining is roughly half derived from capital expenditures on computing power equipment and the other half from electricity consumption; in contrast, the cost of AI inference is almost entirely dominated by capital expenditures on computing power. This difference reflects the distinct cost structures of the two computing businesses. Bitcoin miners need to continuously pay for electricity and determine their profit margins based on mining machine efficiency, coin prices, and network difficulty changes; AI inference, on the other hand, relies more on investments in expensive hardware like GPUs, as well as equipment utilization and computing efficiency.The industrial boundaries of both are also changing. As the demand for AI computing power grows, some Bitcoin mining companies are beginning to shift their existing electricity resources and data center facilities towards AI and high-performance computing businesses, hoping to transition from pure mining to computing infrastructure services. Some mining companies are leveraging previously allocated electricity capacity for mining to enter the AI data center market. However, transformation does not mean that cost pressures disappear: mining operations are more directly exposed to fluctuations in electricity prices and Bitcoin prices, while AI computing businesses must bear risks related to GPU procurement, depreciation, and underutilization. Both types of businesses compete for electricity and computing resources, but ultimately, profitability depends on how these resources are converted into revenue.

The third-quarter report released by the stablecoin payment network Borderless.xyz shows that the median cost of sending a $200 remittance through stablecoin funding channels is 1%, or $2; whereas, according to World Bank data, the median cost of traditional remittance channels is 6.36%, or $12.72. In comparison, the cost of stablecoin remittances is approximately 84% lower. This comparison uses Borderless's pricing for the third quarter of 2026 and World Bank data for the same period in 2025.In emerging markets, the cost advantage is also evident. The cost of stablecoin remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa is 2.9%, while traditional transfers are 8.46%; in Latin America, the figures are 1.25% and 5.64%, respectively. In terms of corporate payments, a $10,000 stablecoin transfer to the Eurozone can cost as low as $26 when choosing the lowest-cost service provider, with the median service provider costing $52; traditional international bank wire transfers for the same amount require $135 to $150, including transfer fees and a 1% foreign exchange spread.Regarding settlement speed, the report states that stablecoin payments can reach the recipient's local bank account within minutes. The median settlement time for Brazil's PIX network in the third quarter is 2 minutes, Mexico's SPEI is 3 minutes, and Colombia's PSE is 2 minutes; traditional SWIFT transfers typically settle the next day, with the slowest 10% taking 3 business days. The success rate for receiving funds varies significantly: Mexico's SPEI is 98.6%, Brazil's PIX is 97.8%, Colombia's PSE is 79%, and Costa Rica's SINPE is only 73%. Standard Chartered Bank recently pointed out that although the total market capitalization of stablecoins has grown relatively slowly this year, transaction volumes are still rising, and it is expected that this market will reach $2 trillion by 2030, two years later than previously predicted.

CryptoQuant analyst MorenoDV_ published an analysis indicating that the realized market cap of new whales in Bitcoin is $78.61 billion, while old whales stand at $159.15 billion. New whales account for 33.06%, compared to about 18% earlier in 2026.Since September, the realized market cap of new whales has continued to grow, while old whales have remained relatively stable, with the growth primarily coming from new whales. The realized market cap is calculated based on the price at the last on-chain transfer of the tokens and does not represent the proportion of BTC supply.In terms of cost, the overall cost basis of new whales has decreased from a previous high of around $110,000 to about $68,000 at the end of August, before rebounding to around $77,000. The current BTC price is $82,134, which is approximately 6.7% higher than the cost basis of new whales.The analysis suggests that the data shows large holders buying during the downturn and continuing to accumulate as prices rebound. However, the turnover of the holder group and transfers between addresses can also inflate the realized market cap, so the growth in realized market cap cannot be interpreted as an equivalent influx of new funds. If BTC continues to fall below around $77,000, new whales will incur losses again, increasing the likelihood of selling during a rebound. The inflow to exchanges and realized losses can be used to determine whether this is short-term pressure or if large holders are starting to sell off again.

On October 16, Circle announced that in the first half of 2026, the on-chain settlement amount of USDC exceeded $36 trillion, and Circle minted and redeemed over $315 billion of USDC during the same period, averaging about $1.7 billion per day. The company stated that as of June, USDC accounted for approximately 77% of the global stablecoin trading volume, an increase from 60% a year ago.More attention from the market is focused on the income distribution of USDC. Circle disclosed that the company generated approximately $1.4 billion in revenue in the first half of the year, of which about $819 million was allocated to USDC distribution partners and transaction costs, accounting for about 59% of the revenue; another approximately $473 million was invested in licensing, banking partnerships, settlement liquidity, compliance systems, product development, and multi-chain deployment, accounting for about 34%. According to the announcement, for every $1 of revenue Circle earns, it ultimately retains only about 7 cents in net profit.This announcement may be in response to market concerns regarding "the monopolization of reserve income by stablecoin issuers." Circle stated that partners can share corresponding reserve income by holding and expanding their USDC balances on their platforms; currently, more than 150 trading platforms, wallets, banks, fintech companies, payment platforms, and enterprises have formed economic interests tied to the growth of USDC. Circle also mentioned that Binance signed a five-year commercial agreement with it in September and invested $100 million in Circle.On the product side, Circle announced the expansion of its free redemption mechanism: all Circle customers can still redeem USDC for free through traditional banking channels, with the funds typically arriving within two business days; customers who make payments through the Circle Payments Network or use eligible products such as Arc, Circle Mint, and Circle Wallets will be able to enjoy free, near-real-time redemption capabilities.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that COREWEAVE's strength is increasing every day, and its capital costs are actually decreasing.

Stripe announced a collaboration with Plasma to develop a multi-currency stablecoin card, aimed at allowing individuals and businesses to spend the currencies they already hold in their accounts, reducing unnecessary currency conversion and foreign exchange costs. Plasma will serve as the design partner, integrating with Stripe's stablecoin card infrastructure, enabling customer account balances to be used for payments through the multi-currency card.The expanded infrastructure will support US dollars, Brazilian reais, euros, Mexican pesos, and Colombian pesos; stablecoins include USDC, OUSD, and qualified stablecoins that meet the requirements of the GENIUS Act. The Stripe stablecoin card service currently covers over 30 countries, with plans to expand to over 100 countries by 2027.For example, users holding euros will be able to spend directly in euros in the future, without needing to convert to US dollars first; businesses can issue currency cards that match their spending needs. Stripe also plans to support cardholders in spending from multiple account balances and automatically selecting the appropriate currency at the time of purchase.